Page:Hunterian oration, delivered in the theatre of the Royal College of Surgeons in London on February 14th 1829 (electronic resource) (IA b2148305x).pdf/28

24 has not been understood always by his writhigs, and the outlines require to be filled up, to fit his views to the comprehension of the ordinary kind of readers.

All the notions we have of matter combine to convince us that it cannot begin motion; and therefore motion implies the agency of that which must be immaterial. We have by means of the senses some information, although not infallible, of matter; but we have no direct information of any of that which is immaterial. Yet, by the observation of phenomena, and submitting to the intellect the ideas of their habitudes and relations, a system may be formed on the firmest principles, comprising the laws of motion, or action. And thus a just and conclusive solution of all the phenomena of motion may be expounded, although we are unacquainted with the nature of the agent. The real philosopher does not show himself solicitous to know the agent, in the theory